Isn’t it funny how when visitors come here to tour this country, we end up discovering that we have seen very little of South Africa ourselves?! We decided to hire a vehicle, and get onto the road – no accommodation booked, just drive and see where we land up.
First day, we hired a vehicle in Cape Town, and drove along to the Hugenot tunnel, but turned off to Sonstraal road to go over Bain’s Kloof. What an awesome road – great turns, and majestic scenery. The river is far below, and we stopped to take pictures of the crazy guys paddling in the freezing waters. Continuing on the journey, we drove through snow… SNOW! We even stopped and had a snowball fight. This is definitely something that I have never done in all the years of living in South Africa, even though it was less than 1 ½ hours away.
We continued on our trip past some magnificent flowers – but we had timed it incorrectly, so they were not fully opened – but we did get out to fun in the fields a bit (we jumped one of the fences and climbed a hill too!) Soon, tired from the climb, we were back in the air-con vehicle, and on our way to Calvinia. We arrived quite late, and found a restaurant at the local garage (petrol station). Believe it or not, the food was pretty good and we had a roaring time with Dini, our waitress, bar lady, shopkeeper, and drinking buddy. Calvinia is small, so we could just walk home – no drinking and driving for us.
The next morning, after breakfast, we “looped back” and headed back to Cape Town via our next stop, Ceres. We had to go through Clanwilliam to get my tyre fixed first. In Ceres, we had an awesome time picking oranges and eating them and then a braai at night (way too much food). The cottage we stayed in was fantastic, and it was on a farm where we could go swim if it was warm enough.
Our next scheduled stop was St. Helena – but when we were driving through it, it did not look very exciting, so we continued on to Paternoster. We stayed at “the beach camp” in an A-frame with the waves lapping at our feet – how incredible!
Now we are back in Cape Town, and we will soon do all the local sites.
